• Democrats are moving forward with Sen. Manchin's slimmed down reconciliation bill, Punchbowl reported. 
  • The bill falls well short of the sweeping social care and climate change actions Dems planned. 
  • But Manchin has refused to back a larger bill, citing inflation concerns. 

Congressional Democratic leaders are planning on moving forward with a drastically reduced domestic spending bill proposed by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Punchbowl reported.

Manchin last week declared that he would not back any climate change spending or tax provisions in a proposed bill that he has been negotiating for weeks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The announcement effectively ended already faint Democratic hopes that they would be able to pass some much reduced form of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill, which was originally priced at $3.5 trillion and contains sweeping plans for climate change and social care. 

Instead, Punchbowl reported, Democratic leaders will be moving forward with a drastically reduced bill allowing MediCare to negotiate drug prices, and extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies for 2 years. 

Plans to move forward with Manchin's-approved bill have sign off from Biden, who in remarks on his tour of the Middle East said that Democrats should back the smaller package, and that he could take executive action on climate change measures. 

Facing sliding poll ratings, the president is under mounting pressure to produce a legislative achievement ahead of the midterms, when the Republican Party is expected to take back control of the House, and possibly the Senate. 

Manchin in a Fox News interview last year said he would not back Build Back Better in its original form, citing concerns about inflation. But Democratic hopes of passing some form of the bill remained intact, as Manchin entered into discussions with Schumer to broker measures both could support. 

Some Democrats have angrily turned on Manchin in the wake of last week's announcement, with Sen. Bernie Sanders accusing Manchin in an ABC News interview Sunday of "sabotaging" Biden's agenda. 

With their razor-thin one vote majority in the Senate, Democrats need the unanimous support of their caucus to overcome the filibuster and pass bills using a mechanism called "budget reconciliation." This means the opposition of one Democratic senator can torpedo bills.